Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life.

Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn't seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she's coming to terms with her father's death and how to put her own life back together after the accident.

Oh gosh, how do I even sum up my love for this book with words? To start off with, I wasn’t expecting it. A book about a road trip? How exciting and enthralling could that possibly be? But it completely took me by surprise and left me flabbergasted when I found that putting it down was nearly impossible.

Amy’s character is closed-off and quiet, while Roger is a bit more outgoing and boisterous. The first few chapters of the road trip are a bit awkward, but instead of their personalities clashing, they start to rely on each other. After that, the relationship that forms is one that will be on a lot of my favorite lists for a long time. Roger is funny and Amy is sarcastic, and I loved every second of it.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the visuals. Several pages of the book are devoted to flyers, schedules, emails, purchases/lodgings receipts and pictures of the places that they visit. It also included hand-written pages of Amy & Roger’s road trip play-lists, which featured hilarious doodles from Roger. The book still would’ve been amazing without it, but I thought it was incredibly neat to actually see what we were reading and I hope more novels take notice! (At first, I thought somebody actually drawn Roger’s doodles into my copy before sending it to me!)

Overall, I thought this book was fantastic. Cracked into my top ten favorite list, even! Amy’s slow but progressing reveal of her past and Roger’s determination for his uncertain future with his ex-girlfriend makes for a great adventure that will evoke so many emotions. I definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone.